Outlook: How do you top winning the greatest title race in Premier League history? That is the question Roberto Mancini must answer as Manchester City prepare to defend the English crown for the first time in 44 years.

City’s status as top dogs will bring greater scrutiny and higher expectations than ever.

Only a repeat of their title victory and a prolonged challenge in the Champions League will be seen as an improvement on last season’s heroics.

MANCHESTER UNITED

Manager: Sir Alex Ferguson

Last season: Premier League runners-up, FA Cup 4th round, League Cup quarter-finals, Champions League group stage, Europa League last 16

Outlook: Not for the first time, Arsene Wenger has spent the summer engaged in an apparently fruitless attempt to persuade a star player to remain at the Emirates Stadium with Robin van Persie signalling an intent to leave Arsenal.

Wenger will face a tough battle to convince van Persie he has the squad to end Arsenal’s seven-year title drought and with midfielder Alex Song also reported to be unsettled, the Gunners look destined to remain entertaining underachievers for the foreseeable future.

Outlook: With his miserable reign at Chelsea still fresh in the memory, Andre Villas-Boas has plenty of questions to answer after his surprise appointment as Harry Redknapp’s successor at White Hart Lane.

Villas-Boas, the 34-year-old Portuguese coach, has already had to deal with Luka Modric’s protests over the club’s failure to sign off on his move to Real Madrid, and only a repeat of Redknapp’s top-four finishes will avoid another painful exit from one of London’s major clubs.

Outlook: Nothing summed up Newcastle’s unlikely success last season better than the look of incredulity on Alan Pardew’s face when Papiss Demba Cisse scored a goal of the season contender to kill off Chelsea in a crucial clash at Stamford Bridge.

Widely regarded as pre-season relegation candidates, Newcastle ended up narrowly missing out on a Champions League spot. Now they have to maintain that progress and with key players like Cisse, Yohan Cabaye and Cheick Tiote so far persuaded to stay, the Magpies believe they could even steal some silverware.

Outlook: Chelsea’s celebrations of a Champions League and FA Cup double were barely underway when their squad overhaul began with veteran striker Didier Drogba announcing he was leaving the club.

Blues owner Roman Abramovich wants to win more trophies while emulating Barcelona’s style of football meaning Roberto di Matteo, finally handed a two-year contract after his success as interim coach, needs to quickly get the best out of new signings Eden Hazard and Oscar if he is to bring Catalan style to a team respected but rarely admired.

Outlook: Despite being linked with the Tottenham job, Everton boss David Moyes remains in charge at Goodison Park, where he will continue to balance his and the fans’ desire for silverware with the harsh realities of Everton’s perilous financial situation.

In the circumstances, Moyes deserves great credit for keeping Everton in the top 10, but he will have shake off his innate conservatism before the Toffees can start looking any higher up the table.

Outlook: Kenny Dalglish’s second spell at the club ended in a disappointing eighth-place league finish and the sacking of a club legend.

Brendan Rodgers comes in as Dalglish’s replacement and has been charged with rebuilding the club after their lowest league finish in 18 years.

His belief in an eye-catching possession game will go down well with the Anfield purists, but the former Swansea boss knows faces a tough task to restore the 18-time English champions to their former glory.

Outlook: Under the no-nonsense leadership of boss Martin Jol, Fulham remain one of the Premier League’s solid citizens – unlikely to need the silverware polishers but more than capable of troubling even the division’s big guns on their day.

In a bid to stop the club stagnating, Jol has opted to sell Danny Murphy, Andrew Johnson and Dickson Ethuhu – all long-serving members of the squad – and bring in several new faces including Wigan striker Hugo Rodallega and Croatian forward Mladen Petric from Hamburg.

After underwhelming spells in charge at Spartak Moscow and Real Mallorca, whether former Real Madrid and Barcelona player Laudrup can live up to Rodgers’ success remains to be seen. The experiment will make for fascinating viewing.

Outlook: Paul Lambert’s departure has left Norwich at a cross-roads after last season’s impressive mid-table finish and it would be easy to fear the worst for one of the league’s most welcoming clubs.

Lambert’s defection to Aston Villa threatens to disrupt three years of tremendous success for the Canaries, who were playing in League One in 2010, but in new boss Chris Hughton, hired from Championship club Birmingham, they have a man determined to seize his chance for Premier League redemption following an acrimonious split with Newcastle.

Outlook: Steering Sunderland away from the relegation dogfight in his first season has earned Martin O’Neill plenty of respect at the Stadium of Light, but he won’t be satisfied until the Black Cats are more concerned with matters at the other end of the table.

However, O’Neill has been quiet in the transfer market so far – Aston Villa centre-back Carlos Cuellar is the only arrival – and more improvements are needed before Sunderland are ready to emulate Newcastle’s success.

Outlook: Now firmly established after four seasons in the top-flight, Stoke face a dilemma. Do they settle for being the Premier League’s perennial bully-boys or introduce a more sophisticated style of play?

In many ways Tony Pulis’s collection of rough and tumble journeymen are the role model for clubs aspiring to gatecrash the elite but the feeling persists that Pulis needs to tweak their tactics to encourage for flair if they are to take the next step.

Outlook: Once again the future of boss Roberto Martinez cast a long shadow over Wigan’s preparations for the new season.

The urbane Spaniard had flirted with a move to Aston Villa in 2011 and 12 months later, after inspiring the Latics to beat the drop with an impressive late run that included wins over Manchester United, Arsenal and Newcastle, he was approached by Liverpool.

Villa were also back in the hunt for Martinez, but his future, for the short term at least, remains at the DW Stadium, where he will once again he asked to work miracles on a limited budget.

Outlook: QPR manager Mark Hughes has made wholesale changes after his team’s narrow last-day escape at the end of last season.

Hughes is trying to blend a new mix of experienced campaigners, Ryan Nelsen, Park Ji-Sung and Robert Green, and dynamic young tyros like David Hoilett and Fabio da Silva.

QPR, without the suspended Joey Barton for the first 12 games of the season, will hope to ascend to the ranks of the Premier League’s middle-classes eventually, but for now survival would still do just fine.

Outlook: Under Nigel Adkins’ progressive leadership, Southampton have enjoyed a remarkable rise that will reach its climax when Saints kick-off their first top-flight campaign for seven years at champions Manchester City.

Adkins, aided by the goals of Rickie Lambert and the guile of Adam Lallana, has inspired two successive promotions and breathed new life into the previously moribund club. Staying up will be tough, but Saints believe anything is possible these days.